FYI...Cell phones next Internet battleground...
<<Industry giants, newcomers war over screen space, services
BY DEBORAH KONG
Mercury News Staff Writer
As Internet access moves beyond the PC, there's a new battle shaping up over a hot piece of real estate: your wireless phone screen.
This land grab has attracted everyone from established players like Yahoo, America Online and Microsoft's MSN.com to little-known newcomers like Los Gatos-based MobileID.
Portals like Yahoo have traditionally acted as a gateway to the Web for computer users. Now, along with being the first thing PC users see when they go online, they also want to be the first thing people see on their mobile phone screens.
''This is viewed as the next frontier for the Internet -- getting on all these devices,'' said Mohan Vishwanath, vice president of Yahoo Everywhere. ''On the PC side, that landscape has been mapped out reasonably well. The only place where new people are able to come in is on this other device.''
The companies' strategies are remarkably similar, even in name -- from Yahoo Everywhere to AOL Anywhere to Microsoft's Everyday Web vision. They're all focused on providing people with access to information, entertainment and services at any time of the day, and on an array of devices from mobile phones to personal digital assistants to televisions.
At the moment, the wireless phone is especially attractive.
In the United States, about 58 million households had PCs at the end of December, according to Jupiter Communications. There are even more wireless phone subscribers -- 84 million, according to the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association.
The wireless market is growing rapidly, although there are some obstacles to getting data on mobile phones. For one thing, the phones have small screens and keypads, and it's not practical to display entire Web pages on the tiny screen. In many cases, what is available is a stripped-down version of a site. Additionally, only about 100,000 U.S. wireless phones have built-in ''microbrowsers'' that allow Web surfing, although more and more new phones have them.
For portals, jumping into the Wild West of the wireless world has several attractions: it drives visitors to their sites, where they configure the kind of data they want to receive on the phones. It's yet another feature to add to their stable of free services. And more visitors, whether they're using PCs, phones or other devices to get to the site, mean companies can charge higher advertising rates.
Beyond the desktop
''Our view is very simple: we already have a pretty large user base. We want to make sure our existing users have a good way to get stuff so that Yahoo's services and brand (extend) beyond the desktop,'' said Vishwanath of Yahoo. ''When the more general masses start buying these devices with Internet capability in them, we want to make sure we are there.''
Yahoo and MSN offer similar services that allow users who can receive text messages on their phones to get stocks, weather, horoscope and other alerts sent to their phones.
With these services, consumers mostly get information pushed to them, rather than being able to access it themselves, as they do browsing the Web with a PC. But MSN Mobile 2.0, to be introduced in the next few months, will let users get e-mail from their Hotmail accounts as well as see weather or other information when they want to, instead of waiting for an alert.
AOL is also building its mobile strategy through acquisitions such as last month's purchase of Tegic Communications, which provides software that makes it easier for people to send messages from their phones. It also acquired MapQuest in order to leverage its ability to deliver maps, directions and traffic information to mobile devices such as wireless phones and PalmPilots.
Acquiring technology
Such content has to be configured to fit on phones, which is why Yahoo acquired Online Anywhere of Palo Alto in June. The company brought with it a technology that formats Web content for non-PC devices.
Some services that allow Web browsing are already available through carriers such as Sprint PCS and AT&T, though only on special phones..
Sprint's Wireless Web service offers content from Yahoo, Bloomberg, CNN, Ameritrade, Amazon.com and others. AT&T has a similar PocketNet service that includes content from Excite, such as personalized stock portfolios, news, weather and sports and e-mail.
Newcomers are also fighting for access to wireless phone screens. MobileID plans to introduce a service that lets users go to a Web site to set preferences about the kind of data they want to receive.
Beginning today, Mobile ID will offer people the ability to get e-mail from their personal e-mail accounts. By Feb. 28, it expects to also offer content and services. Users could get information about golf courses and book golf tee times, or get information about football, finance and travel.
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Contact Deborah Kong at dkong@sjmercury.com or (408) 920-5922.
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Knight Ridder, parent company of the Mercury News, is an investor in America Online Inc.>>
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There are over 16.5 thousand posts on this thought provoking thread.!!
...Congratulations Uncle Frank. I remember when you launched this SI thread. It's now almost always on 'the HOT list.' I will admit that I read it when I get a chance and I have learned from many of the posters.
IMO, 2000 will be another very good year for investing. Yet, we will have to live with incredible turbulence in the market. I am currently operating without any margin and am holding a little cash on the side for 'special opportunities.' Yet, I remain quite fully invested in the high tech marketplace. I like to try to think LONG TERM. Identifying the future Gorillas in the B2B or bandwidth space will be quite a challenge. Staying effectively invested in them is when the fun really starts <G>.
Enjoy the weekend.
Best Regards,
Scott |
